If living a long and healthy life is the true measurement of personal success, what can we, as individuals, do to extend our years and keep disease at bay? According to some recent studies, vitamin supplements may not necessarily be the answer.
Our nation’s vitamin supplement industry is a $23 billion business. But, research shows that there is no sufficient evidence that taking vitamins – in pill form – helps prevent chronic disease or prolong life. So why are so many Americans hooked on taking vitamins?
We all need vitamins, which are essential nutrients that keep our bodies running at peak performance. The human body cannot produce these nutrients on its own and inadequate amounts of vitamin D or vitamin C, for example, can cause numerous health problems.
A balanced diet, with plenty of fruits and vegetables, is the key to maintaining good health, and in the U.S. many popular foods are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Because of this, diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies are rare.
Over the years, scientists have suspected that the benefits of a healthful diet come from eating the whole fruit or vegetable, not by isolating the vitamins found in them – and taking them in pill form.
It is suggested that taking vitamin supplements – by isolating one or two key vitamins from broccoli, for example, may not reproduce the health benefits found in the whole food. And there are many research studies to prove this belief.
One such study, made available in February of 2009, tells us that researchers in the Women’s Health Initiative study tracked eight years of multivitamin use among more than 161,000 older women. And despite earlier findings suggesting that multivitamins might lower the risk for heart disease and certain cancers, the study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, found no such benefit.
In 2008, another study that tracked almost 15,000 male physicians for a decade reported no differences in cancer or heart disease rates among those using vitamins E and C compared with those taking a placebo. And in October of 2008, a study of 35,000 men dashed hopes that high doses of vitamin E and selenium could lower the risk of prostate cancer.
So, what’s the answer? If you want to live to be 100, listen to what your mother told you and eat your vegetables. And fruits. If you’re bored with them, mix it up ,or rather “Vitamix it up” by making one-minute green smoothies (you won’t taste the “green”), 4-minute soup (go from fresh to steaming hot), and an array of quick and delicious good-for-you desserts, purees, drinks, dips, spreads, appetizers and salsas with your Vitamix blender. Prepare to live long and prosper.
